philosopher
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Regarding the last WMT train to Northampton being cancelled, if WMT could not have arranged a bus, shouldn’t they have arranged and paid for taxis?
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ITV Trouble on the tracks
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Robertj21a
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The whole business about arranging replacement buses was an utter fiasco. Some were parked up in places where they were totally unused for 12 hours and yet none at all were apparently available at New Street - ridiculous. That would appear to be the TOCs responsibility.
Why on earth the passengers thought that a bus company with no connection to trains, or WMT, should suddenly find a bus and driver to take them to Coventry just showed that the travelling public are also utterly ridiculous at times.
C J Snarzell
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I recorded the first two episodes and watched them together yesterday afternoon. I recorded last night's episode but I'm going to watch it as and when.
E16 Cyclist
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They did say normal rules don’t apply when it’s been advertised in advance, and in fairness to WMT it was widely publicised there was going to be strike action
I thought that policeman Pat came across very well and is a credit to the BTP
This was my view as well. Whichever company was responsible for alternative transport was at fault but equally some of the public were ridiculous.
The opening titles always make me smile.
There is a very short clip of less than two seconds from a forward facing camera.
(Immediately after the bit where the bloke at the side of the train days "im trying to meet my future wife ")
It gives the impression that this train in hammering along at about 70mph or so.
It is actually on the UF of Piccadilly Throat having just left Manchester Piccadilly and would still be doing 15mph at this point. The cab has just passed the 25mph board.
And apart from that the next signal is showing a single yellow with the next Red signal in view just ahead. I broke out in cold sweat the first time I watched this.
Just goes to show, don't believe everything you see on the telly.
There is a very short clip of less than two seconds from a forward facing camera.
(Immediately after the bit where the bloke at the side of the train days "im trying to meet my future wife ")
It gives the impression that this train in hammering along at about 70mph or so.
It is actually on the UF of Piccadilly Throat having just left Manchester Piccadilly and would still be doing 15mph at this point. The cab has just passed the 25mph board.
And apart from that the next signal is showing a single yellow with the next Red signal in view just ahead. I broke out in cold sweat the first time I watched this.
Just goes to show, don't believe everything you see on the telly.
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C J Snarzell
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I cannot believe the farmer who drove across the line in front of the Cross Country train, nearly causing a collision. He/she should have had the book thrown at them by the court.
From what I could gather WMT put together a strike timetable and even that seemed to fall apart at the end of the day leaving loads of people stranded. It seems as though the majority of the rail replacement buses that they organised could have been better deployed at Birmingham New St (in the evening in particular) rather than "out in the sticks". I was also a bit surprised to hear that WMT don't have a customer services desk at New St
Robertj21a
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It's usually the TOC that organises the rail replacement buses and dictates what should be where, and when. The bus/coach operator is just there to comply with the directions from the TOC.
C J Snarzell
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Most if not all TOCs will have a contract with another company that does rail replacement. Northern still use the Arriva Road Transport Services (even though Northern came out of Arriva on the 29 Feb) and they also do the rail replacement for Cross Country, Grand Central & TfW.
I don't know who does the rail replacement for West Midlands Trains. I believe Stagecoach provide RR for one of the TOCs but I don't know which one.
The Rail Replacement company will then recruit coaches from companies they have on their books and keep in regular contact with coach drivers throughout and take overall responsibility for ensuring passengers get from A to B.
Interesting that the episode I have watched of 'Trouble on the Tracks' involved the Customer Service Assistant at New Street dealing with the angry mob outside the station who wanted to get to Cheltenham & Bristol.
Generally speaking this would be the role of a station coordinator who the rail replacement company would try & put in place. I would assume that as this is an emergency & not preplanned they have not been able to get a coordinator in ASAP.
CJ
Sorry I wasn't clear in my original comment. By "Whichever company was responsible for alternative transport" I was referring to the TOC/Network rail (clarified by subsequent posts to be the TOC), who organised it, rather than the operator of the buses or coaches. As others have said the bus or coach operator would have just done as the TOC specified.
Robertj21a
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Stagecoach used to organise the rail replacements for those TOCs where they also had an involvement. It may be that they are no longer interested in RR.
weastebusdepot
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Abellio Rail Replacement (ARR) arranges the rail replacement for West Midlands Trains. They also do EMR, ScotRail and Greater Anglia. In all but Greater Anglia they also provide the coordination staff if the TOC requires it.
MotorcycleAlan
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I would have asked the family provided with a taxi, to ask their children to take their feet off the seats in the waiting area. No wonder they grow up thinking that is what you do on trains too.
Stampy
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When we had the recent windy conditions, I was trying to get back from Birmingham New Street to Stamford and was "advised" at New Street to catch a train from there to Coventry and then the Nuneaton train will be waiting there and to continue back from Nuneaton.
Unfortunately, nobody told Coventry this and they let the Nuneaton train go on time - cue 10 minutes later a Virgin Trains arrival with 20 passengers all looking for the "held" Nuneaton train...
Had to catch the next one (at 1914, I think) - and then to got to Nuneaton where RRB had just left EMPTY going back to Birmingham.
Got told at Nuneaton that they were now "turning back" the Cross Country trains at Leicester, and we had to make our OWN WAY from Nuneaton to Leicester.
Got the service bus (along with about 15 others) which took ages and stopped everywhere - and we had to walk from Leicester Bus Station to the train station.
Get to Leicester station to find no trains, and Leicester not being told to expect passengers.
Ended up sharing one of FOUR taxis back, mine did Melton, Oakham and Stamford. The others did 2 x Peterborough, and the last did Cambridge.
Got home about midnight...
Unfortunately, nobody told Coventry this and they let the Nuneaton train go on time - cue 10 minutes later a Virgin Trains arrival with 20 passengers all looking for the "held" Nuneaton train...
Had to catch the next one (at 1914, I think) - and then to got to Nuneaton where RRB had just left EMPTY going back to Birmingham.
Got told at Nuneaton that they were now "turning back" the Cross Country trains at Leicester, and we had to make our OWN WAY from Nuneaton to Leicester.
Got the service bus (along with about 15 others) which took ages and stopped everywhere - and we had to walk from Leicester Bus Station to the train station.
Get to Leicester station to find no trains, and Leicester not being told to expect passengers.
Ended up sharing one of FOUR taxis back, mine did Melton, Oakham and Stamford. The others did 2 x Peterborough, and the last did Cambridge.
Got home about midnight...
JohnMcL7
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I felt bad for the boy showing his favourite photo explaining it was a class 170 but clearly showing a pair of 158's however it's badly edited because when he starts speaking you can just see it is a 170 on the camera but then they continue that audio while showing the zoomed in shot of the 158's making him look a bit clueless.
Do people like Pendolinos? The program suggested they were a trainspotter's dream but not one that's ever appealed to me.
Do people like Pendolinos? The program suggested they were a trainspotter's dream but not one that's ever appealed to me.
voyagerdude220
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Funnily enough I wondered why the fellow enthusiast was referring to a class 170, when the TV camera showed the 158 on his camera.
As for Pendolinos, yes they're fast and seem to accelerate reasonably quickly, but the very small windows/number of seats which don't offer a view out of the window/bad smells, I certainly don't rate them.
I much prefer the Super Voyagers. Of course they have their faults, but if they're not particularly busy, at least you can see where you're going from most of the seats on them.
theironroad
Established Member
Having just watched it, I'd agree that it's an editing issue. I reckon the guy was pretty clued up and knew what train was what. Sure he'll get some abuse from his fellow enthusiasts though! They all came across well.
I think what 22 years of Branson and virgin did was create a good brand and a lot of energy and hype around that brand. It worked to an extent because a lot of enthusiasts and staff, particularly younger seem to have got caught up in it.
I'm not a fan of pendos as I find them dim and dingy inside and while the toilet issue seems to have been sorted I think. The tilt isn't great either but realise it's a necessary evil for decent journey times on the west coast. Maybe the refurb could be used to brighten things up, though obviously larger windows won't happen, decent power supplies at every seat will help.
To be fair, I find the subdued lighting in the Pendolinos is quite pleasant compared to the extreme lighting on the trains I use.
theironroad
Established Member
I think some of the more vocal ones had been having a few drinks in the market and were getting stressed. I'm surprised that they didn't order everyone off the bus and start again as it seems the guy left behind actually had a ticket for the bus not train, though I'm not really practical though.
Seems that WMT wrote and published the timetable based on some guesstimate of the numbe of regular staff who would cross the pocket line. The narrator said that less people came to work than was anticipated.
Two people interviewed that I did have some real empathy for were the Scottish lady and another guy who both said they had bought tickets that morning and not been advised of the strike or that it would be harder to get back. I appreciate there is a lot of publicity around strikes but a verbal warning at a ticket office or a red warning on a digital outlet would help avoid these situations.
Pat from BTP did come across well until when the mouthy couple were walking AWAY from the situation at the barriers as they were at the wrong station, he decided to go for one last encounter, even his colleague said he was a 'warrior'. Don't think that helps. The whole business about the man carrying £1000 from his nan so he could buy a Louis Vuitton bag was hilarious, except that he probably was a county lines drug runner but nothing could be done.
One thing that did slightly irk me was the NR incident controller making a snide remark about the WMT complaints team needing to be staffed. Yes, everyone on here knows the structure of the railway industry, but most passengers, especially occasional ones don't and just see 'the railway' or even still 'british rail'. This willingness for people within the industry to do petty point scoring on all sides does the railway as a whole absolutely no good, sloping shoulders and saying it's someone's else's problem might be legally correct but TOCs/FOCs taking pleasure in blaming each other and NR blaming tocs and tocs blaming NR is a merry go round that's of no use to Joe bloggs wanting to get from a to b .
They did have the book thrown at them I think? Obviously it’ll never be Life imprisonment which is the maximum penalty for endangering safety on the railway though unfortunately.
Wasn’t that the part at Southampton Airport?
C J Snarzell
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Pat the German born BTP cop was ace - I used to work with a chap just like him. They're the type of cops who make a shift very interesting & like my former colleague, Pat was also a Rottweiler with the 'undesirables'.
Without stereotyping, the lads out to purchase the bag for Nanna were more than likely involved in drugs - the BTP lads clearly knew this but it's a very fine line treading carefully and ensuring you comply with the correct stop & search procedures and in this case the cops did absolutely everything right (Clearly when it's on camera!!!).
I would like to think that the BTP circulated intelligence about these three lads for future reference because their attitudes did suggest they are so two faced they will simply commit fare evasion again and again.
CJ
Without stereotyping, the lads out to purchase the bag for Nanna were more than likely involved in drugs - the BTP lads clearly knew this but it's a very fine line treading carefully and ensuring you comply with the correct stop & search procedures and in this case the cops did absolutely everything right (Clearly when it's on camera!!!).
I would like to think that the BTP circulated intelligence about these three lads for future reference because their attitudes did suggest they are so two faced they will simply commit fare evasion again and again.
CJ
weastebusdepot
Member
That was blatantly obvious. Had similar situations with people turning up quite late in the day very agitated wanting to go half way across the country with a journey that requires multiple changes and asking what time they will arrive at their destination. Their next question is "What time are they coming back?". When you check and tell them the last return service of the day leaves 20 minutes after they've arrived, they still want to go.
Kite159
Veteran Member
Especially foolish enough to try and dodge the fare in first class!
For that family with tickets for Marylebone (route High Wycombe) I wonder why they didn't get offered the chance to excess to an any permitted ticket to use West Coast.
MotorcycleAlan
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They quite possibly did. Only a very small percentage of what is filmed, actually makes it to the final edited programme we see. Incidentally, it seems that all other tv programmes fall into the 'media' sub heading. Any reason this one doesn't?
C J Snarzell
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15 years as a cop has made me hardened to members of the public and at times I found it impossible to have any sympathy and I just dispair at the situations people put themselves in.
The Eastern European family with the 9 month pregnant lady - just why has she ventured out miles from home using public transport on the busiest shopping day of the year when she is due to give birth at any moment beggars belief?
The two idiots at Euston who were being told to go to Marylebone because their tickets did not entitle them to travel with a certain operator (possibly Avanti West Coast). Again completely stubborn behaviour - I actually thought they may have come back from a Jeremy Kyle audition.
The idiots on the National Express bus - I really did get annoyed at this. Most of these people were your usual Saturday night pissheads who were behaving completely & utterly unreasonable towards the driver. I think one of them bribed him to drive the bus when it couldn't even move because of the overload. Absolutely madness!
CJ
The Eastern European family with the 9 month pregnant lady - just why has she ventured out miles from home using public transport on the busiest shopping day of the year when she is due to give birth at any moment beggars belief?
The two idiots at Euston who were being told to go to Marylebone because their tickets did not entitle them to travel with a certain operator (possibly Avanti West Coast). Again completely stubborn behaviour - I actually thought they may have come back from a Jeremy Kyle audition.
The idiots on the National Express bus - I really did get annoyed at this. Most of these people were your usual Saturday night pissheads who were behaving completely & utterly unreasonable towards the driver. I think one of them bribed him to drive the bus when it couldn't even move because of the overload. Absolutely madness!
CJ
philthetube
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A little bit of defence for one of the guys on the N ex bus, he had a ticket and it looked as if he had been sold it by the driver who then told him that the bus was overloaded and he couldn't travel.
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